So the patcher won't even show up now?
Try running patcher_cf.exe directly instead of opening it via launcher?
patcher_cf.exe is located in your Z8Games/Crossfire Folder.
The path basically is Cor whatever your local disk is)\Program Files\Z8Games\Crossfire
Look for patcher_cf.exe in there... Give that a shot... Remember if you are a Vista or 7 user, RUN AS ADMIN.